living arts

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

Boost your vitality with a fantastic 5 day program of intelligent play designed to stimulate your creative body-mind! No previous experience required - Enthusiasm is all you need!

Here you will awake enlivened by the sound of the ocean. Our beach cottages and beautiful spacious Shala are just a step away from the sand. In this peaceful atmosphere you can enjoy both your private and interactive time.

Begin the day with sunrise meditation and be guided in specific yoga sequences for the integration of focus, balance, strength and flexibility.

Explore new ways to expand your physical awareness with ensemble games, circus arts, play movement, fire spinning and dance! This collective experience will develop your understanding of intuitive movement, counter-balance and co-ordination and build confidence in your body’s potential.

Each meal you will experience nutrient rich ways of eating with our specialist Raw & Super Foods chef and learn how nutrition can optimize your body’s functioning and enrich your quality of life.

On this retreat be sparked by our energetic team of facilitators and take home inspiring tools for living life with awareness and a new readiness to play!

Play moves

“Making innovative, powerful, and exciting theatre that can help to build bridges between people and create greater understanding amongst us.”


Anna is a performer, movement teacher, theatre maker and director based in Australia.
A highlight of her work is the acclaimed one-woman show 'Chinese Take Away' and its film adaptation, which toured to festivals in Asia, Europe, Australia and USA. 


Anna trained with Philippe Gaulier, Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, Shanghai Circus School and Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre Summer School. She also studied with renowned European theatre teacher Monika Pagneux in Europe and Australia, including being invited to her Pedagogy Courses in recent years - Paris 1994, Barcelona 2007 and 2008. 

Inspired by Pagneux, Anna trained as a Feldenkrais Method® Practitioner, graduating in 2000, and integrates this knowledge in her work. She is keen to share this work and in doing so, deepen her own investigation of how we as performers / creators can be more awake and present in every moment, ready to play.

www.playmoves.org

Physical Exploration

Divo Sock draws on her experience as a physical performer, yoga teacher, circus teacher, pilates instructor and physiotherapist to bring a broad perspective to her teaching approach. Divo has taught a wide variety of classes to a huge variety of participants including people of all ages and abilities, street youth, the deaf community, people from a variety of cultural backgrounds, queer and transgender identified people. Her philosophy of teaching is very much focused on empowerment and creativity rather than being driven by physical achievements. Divo currently lives in Brisbane and is a physiotherapist/pilates instructor at Performance Rehab Physiotherapy in Annerley, teaches for Vulcana Women’s Circus, teaches Yoga/Pilates at The Yoga Den and is a freelance performer.

Dance, Circus And Movement

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body.”  Martha Graham

Sofia is a diverse and energetic teacher. She combines skill and task based exercises to encourage participants to challenge their physical boundaries safely, helping them to find new and unexpected territories. She is a professional dancer/physical theatre/circus performer who has facilitated workshops in Australia and internationally for diverse communities including young people, people with disabilities, women, transgendered, queer and indigenous youth. Sofia has recently returned to Australia after living in the UK where she has been teaching and performing dance and circus. Sofia is currently living in Brisbane where she teaches for Vulcana Women’s Circus and is creating new physical theatre/dance performance projects.

fire and object manipulation

Jasmine has been playing with fire for nearly a decade now and is still entranced by the magic and beauty of the flame. She has shared her inspiration as a performer and facilitated workshops in fire arts in numerous national and international festivals including the Woodford Folk Festival and 'Bornfire' at the Singapore Arts Festival. More recently, she has completed an arts-worker traineeship with Vulcana Women's Circus in Brisbane. This experience has guided Jasmine's facilitation style and she believes in focusing on the individual's personal development and empowerment through nurturing and encouraging facilitation.

superfoods

Jo Voight is a qualified chef of over twenty years’ experience. During that time she has worked in restaurants, cafes, catering and many retreats. Her passions are food, art and yoga and these have combined with a lifelong devotion to eating healthfully and deliciously! Jo currently focuses on raw and wholefoods catering and teaching, whilst also consulting to small business in the hospitality industry. She enjoys bringing pleasure to people through her food and educating people how to eat well for nutrition and enjoyment.

Superfoods are a category of food on their own. They are all natural unprocessed sources of nutrition with very high levels of minerals, vitamins, protein, anti-oxidants and essential fatty acids. They are a fantastic source of sustained energy and immune boosting nutrients, with many benefits for optimum cellular functioning. Superfoods are essential for the health-conscious individual, as much of our food these days is grown in mineral-deficient soil, is over-processed and heat-treated, often from hybrid and irradiated sources flooded with pesticides and growth hormones.

Superfoods come from a variety of sources: bees, sea vegetables, greens, herbs, fruits and nuts. Many of them are delicious and highly beneficial additions to the diet—we will taste and learn about many of them during this retreat.